FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



cationally has been its small educational unit. In earlier 

 years the little school district was the ideal educational unit 

 and served admirably the needs of the day when the nona- 

 genarian was a school girl. But the slogan of the twentieth 

 century is centralization, consolidation, and the little school 

 districts are very much out of harmony with the spirit of the 

 age. Of course there are some school districts today which in 

 spite of their many handicaps do wonderfully well; but where 

 one such school exists there are many backward schools, and 

 this greatly retards the symmetrical development of the nation. 



But fortunately a new day is dawning in Rural America. 

 The fifty millions of Rural America are catching the vision 

 of the possibilities of a greater rural civilization, public sen- 

 timent is crystallizing in the interest of a rural school system 

 that will be perfectly responsive to the needs of the new era, 

 and the next generation will see marvelous changes. A study 

 of national educational progress warrants three generaliza- 

 tions: (i) a disposition on the part of all the states to clothe 

 the state boards of education with larger powers and respon- 

 sibilities, the boards themselves to select the state superin- 

 tendents ; (2) an inclination to increase the size of the 

 educational unit, which in a majority of cases is made the 

 county; and (3) a nation-wide desire to have in the country as 

 good buildings, as well adapted courses of study and as 

 capable teachers as are found in the cities. 



In a recent interesting article Mr. W. K. Tate gives a 

 concrete example of rural school work that is worthy of imita- 

 tion, with the changes made necessary in different parts of 

 the country, in all Rural America. " In the experimental 

 country school on the campus of the Winthrop Normal and 

 Industrial College of South Carolina, the school day usually 

 begins in the garden. Arithmetic is studied in connection with 

 the measurements of the plots, the planting of the seed, the 

 weighing and estimating of the crop, the study of the soil, the 

 building of the fence. After the youngest children have laid 

 out their garden plots and planted their seed, they must label 

 the beds and make notes in their garden books of the time of 



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